- 
202 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
April, and sometimes is seen by the first week in that 
month. In its habits, it resembles both the Creepers and 
Warblers; moving about the bodies and limbs of trees with 
the ease of the former, and gleaning amongst the foliage the 
insect hosts like the latter. I have sometimes seen it seize 
a flying insect while on the wing, although this must have 
been a departure from its general habits. 
The song of the male during the mating season is a sort 
of lisping rendition of the syllables whéchee, whéchee, 
whéchee, whéchee, uttered at first loud, and gradually weak- 
ening to a subdued note, like chéet. At other times, it has 
only a faint chirp or chink, which is uttered by both sexes. 
About the 10th of May, after the birds have paired, they 
commence building the nest: this, Audubon says, in Louis- 
iana “is usually placed in some small hole in a tree, and 
is composed of mosses in a dry state, and lined with cottony 
substances.” In New England, it is almost always built, or 
rather placed, on the ground ; the situation is chosen usually 
beneath an overhanging point of rock, or beneath a fallen 
trunk of a tree: it is made of mosses, straw, leaves, and 
other soft materials, and is lined with cotton from ferns, 
soft grass, or hair. The eggs are laid by the middle of 
May. They are usually four or five in number: their color 
is white, with a slight cream tinge; and they are spotted 
irregularly with fine dots and confluent blotches of reddish- 
brown, thickest near the largest end of the egg. Dimen- 
sions of four eggs found in a nest in Reading, Mass.: .66 
by .54 inch, .66 by .54 inch, .65 by .54 inch, .65 by .54 
inch. Two broods are occasionally reared by this species in 
southern New England. 
Probably the greater number breed in more northern 
localities ; for it is much more common in the spring and 
fall than in summer. By the 10th of September, they. move 
on their southern migration; and, after the 15th or 20th of 
that month, none are to be seen in New England. 
